By DPA
Singapore : A Netherlands-based international arbitration court is setting up its first Asian centre in Singapore to resolve disputes between countries in the region, news reports said Tuesday.
Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar and the secretary general of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), Tjaco van den Hout, signed an agreement to establish the facility, the fifth of its kind in the world.
“Singapore is viewed as a neutral venue, is readily accessible to all major economies in both the East and the West, and possesses a legal system that is efficient, reliable and supportive of arbitration,” The Straits Times quoted Jayakumar as saying Monday.
The PCA was set up in 1899 to facilitate dispute resolution between states. It currently has more than 100 countries as members.
Asian countries will benefit from having a PCA centre in Singapore with proceedings heard “in a culturally more familiar and comfortable environment close to home”, van den Hout said.
Nearly 20 percent of the PCA’s cases arise from Asia, ranging from disputes over maritime borders to soured investments.
Arbitration, where both sides agree to settle the matter before third-party experts, is gaining ground in Asia, the report said.
The court’s decisions can be enforced in the more than 135 countries that have signed a multilateral treaty called the New York Convention, not just in the country where the case is heard.